Stretcher

ABSTRACT

A stretcher disposable under a prone body without moving or disturbing the body including a first frame upon which a sheet is wound carried upon a second frame about which an endless belt is wound. As the frames are pulled under the body, the sheet is unwound beneath the body with no longitudinal movement of the unwinding sheet with respect to the body or the ground.

United States Patent 1 STRETCHER [76] Inventor: Cyril Harold Fry, 9055 West 64th a Place, Arvada, Colo. 80004 [22] Filed: Dec. 30, 1971 [21] Appl. No.: 213,972

52 U.S. Cl. 5/81 R, 5/82 51 Int. Cl. A47b 83/04, A61g 1/02 [58] Field of Search 5/62, 63, 81 R, 81 B,

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,639,926 2/1972 Steelman 5/82 2,733,452 2/1956 Tanney 5/81 B Dec.4,1973

3,418,670 12/1968 Morgan 5/81 B 3,579,672 5/1971 Koll et al. 2,880,427 4/1959 Atwood 5/82 Primary Examiner-Casmir A. Nunberg [5 7] ABSTRACT A stretcher disposable under a prone body without moving or disturbing the body including a first frame upon which a sheet is wound carried upon a second frame about which an endless belt is wound; As the frames are pulled under the body, the sheet is unwound beneath the body with no longitudinal movement of the unwinding sheet with respect to the body or the ground.

3 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures lll l STRETCIIER BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION and more particularly to improvements in stretchers of the type which may be disposed beneath a person with minimum movement or disturbance of theperson.

2. Description of the Prior Art It is'well known that injured persons, particularly those injured in automobile collision accidents or the like, may be likely injured further, or their present injuries exacerbated, by careless, rough, or inexperienced handling at the accident scene. Ironically, the injuries received by an accident victim often become secondary to the injuries the victim sustains when moved from the accident scene for medical attention. Some injuries, in fact, are such that even the slightest movement in raising' a victim onto a stretcher may cause permanently disabling lesions.

Most of the efforts to overcome this problem have been in educating the ambulance attendants or others charged with the responsibility of moving such injured persons in the proper methods for handling the injured persons. This, however, appears not to be entirely satisfactory. v

Presently, stretchers ordinarily used in ambulance or other emergency vehicles comprise merely a platform upon and ontowhich the victim is raised and placed. Many stretchers widely used incorporate wheel assemblies which are easily raised and lowered to allow the stretcher to be maintained at various heights so that, for example, the stretcher may be lowered to lessen the distance the victim must be raised to be placedon the stretcher, or, alternatively may be raised to a higher level to facilitate moving the victim from one place to another, for instance, in a hospital corridor. Such height adjustable stretchers undoubtedly have minimized the movement required to place an injured person upon them, but the inherent problems in raising the victim persist nonetheless.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF TFIE INVENTION 1 Accordingly, in light of the above, it is an object of the invention to provide a stretcher which may be positioned under a person in a prone position without disturbing or moving the person.

This and other objects, features, and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, read in conjunction with the accompanying drawing together with the appended BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING The invention is illustrated in the accompanying drawing, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a diagramatic illustration showing a side view of a person in .a prone position, illustrating the operation of the stretcher and, in particular, the stretcher dispenser, in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the opened stretcher, in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 3 is a plan view of the ratchet assembly from the direction 3 in FIG. 2. g

FIG. 4 is a plan view looking in the directionof 4 inFIG. 2, showing the swinging and locking wheel mounts of FIG. 2.

1 FIG. 5 is a perspective view of the stretcher sheet partially unwound from the or dispenser in accordance with the invention. FIG. 6 .is a front view, partially cut away, Illustrating the dispenser for the stretcher sheet of FIG. 5. A

FIG. 7 is a side view, partially 'cut away, of the sheet dispenser for the stretcher sheet of FIG. 5, in accordance with the invention.

FIG. 8 is an alternative but preferred embodiment of a stretcher holder or dispenser and stretcher sheet, in'

accordance with the invention.

Various parts in the drawing have been exaggerated in size or dimension forease of description and clarity of. illustration, as will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION As shown particularly in FIGS. 5, 6, and 7, the stretcher sheet 1 is contained entirely in a dispensing unit 10. The dispensing unit 10 includes, between two supporting end plates 11 and 12, a stretcher sheet carrying mechanism 13 and a traveling mechanism 14' upon which the sheet carrying'mechanism 13 is dis posed. The sheet carrying mechanism 13 includes a flat plate 15 extending approximately the width of the stretcher sheet 1 and which has mounted thereon a plurality of rollers 16 (see FIG. 7) each mounted upon a spindle or axle 17. As illustrated, and shown particu larly in FIG.'6,- the rollers 16 may be centrally disposed upon the plate 15, and preferably, extend over a substantial portion of the width of the plate 15 perpendicular to the direction of travel of the assembly, as hereinafter described. The plate 15 is in attachment with end plates 11 and 12 (see FIG. 5) by tabs 18 or the like, to enable the stretcher sheet 1 to be unwrapped by unrolling it from. the plate 15 as end plates 11 and 12 are v moved.

To facilitate movement of the sheet carrying mechanism 13., the traveling mechanism 14 is provided. Traveling mechanism 14 includes a plate 20 extending the approximate width of the stretcher sheet 1 and includes a plurality of rollers 21, rotatably carried upon spindles or axles 22 mounted at spaced intervals on the plate 20. Like rollers 16, rollers 21 may be centrally located within a cutout portion of the plate 20. Encirclingthe plate 20 and rollers 21 are a plurality of endless belts 23 of rubber or other flexible material which ride upon the rollers.

Thus, in operation, as illustrated in FIG. 1, as the assembly 10 is pulled beneath the prone body 25 by ropes 26 and 27 or handles attached to sheet carrying mechanism 13, and the stretcher sheet 1 is held in a fixed location as illustrated, the stretcher sheet 1 is unwound from the carrying mechanism 13 riding upon the endless belts of the traveling assembly 14. Thus, it may be seen that the stretcher sheet 1 is unwound at the same rate as the endless belts 17 travel across the ground 28. There is, therefore, no relative movement between any point on the unwound portion of the stretcher sheet 1 on the top of the sheet carrying mechanism 13 and any point on the endless belts in contact with the ground, or with the ground itself. Utilizing the assembly 10 as above described, it can be seen that the stretcher sheet 1 may be disposed beneath the prone body 25 without moving or disturbing the body, except for the very slight raising and lowering onto and from the sheet carrying mechanism 13 and traveling mechanism 14.

To further reduce the requiredraising and lowering onto and from the assembly the alternative embodiment illustrated in FIG. 8 may be used. As shown in FIG. 8, the carrying assembly 13 as described with reference to FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 is disposed upon an endless belts assembly 29 in which the internal rollers and plates as described with respect to FIGS. 5, 6 and 7 have been omitted. The endless belts 30 encircle rollers 31 and 32 carried respectively upon spindles or axels 34 and 35, and rides upon itself intermediate axels 34 and 35, carried by end plates 11 and 12, to enable the endless belts to rotate as the assembly 10 is moved.

The internal face of these belts would be treated with an anti-friction surface or suitable lubrication.

Once the stretcher. sheet 1 is properly disposed under the pronebody 25, rods or poles 40 and 41 are attached to the stretcher sheet 1. The rods or poles 40 and 41 have a plurality of protrusions 42 which engage holes 43 (see FIG. along the edges of the stretcher sheet 1. The stretcher sheet 1 is then placed in tension by rotation of at least one of the poles 40 or 41. To enablethe'tension placed within sheet 1 tobe maintained, spacing bars 44 and 45 may be provided at the respective ends of the overall stretcher assembly, as shown in FIG. 2. The spacing bars 44 and 45 allow rotational movement of the pole 41 to enablethe sheet 1 to be properly tensioned. To maintain the proper tension, a ratchet assembly 50, (shown in FIG. 3) is provided.

The ratchet assembly 50 includes a saw-toothed gear 51 coaxially disposed upon the pole 41 and rigidly affixed thereto. A pawl 52 which engages the sawtoothed gear 51 is mounted upon spacing bar 45 to allow unidirectional rotation of the pole 41 to tension the stretcher sheet 1. Also provided is a handle 53 about the pole 41 adjacent the gear 51 including thereon a second pawl 54, the position of which is controllable by a rod 55 extending along the handle 53. Thus, in operation, once the protrusions 42 have been engaged in the holes 43 of the stretcher, the handle assembly 53 is operated to allow pawl 54 to engage the teeth of gear 51 to rotate the pole 41, the rotational direction of which is controlled by the fixed pawl 52.. It will be seen in FIG. 3 that when handle assembly 53 is moved in clockwise direction and comes to rest, the pawl 54 is in a position where it holds pawl 52 from breaking engagement with gear 51 and so prevents accidental loss of tension and the possible dropping of the patient.

Near each end of the poles 40 and 41 are located wheel assemblies 60, the details of which are illustrated in FIG. 4. Each of the wheel assemblies 60 includes a wheel 61 rotatably attached to a frame 62 rotatably mounted upon the respective pole 40 or 41. On the frame 62, is a latch 63 which may be spring-biased to engage a stop-hole 64 or 65, depending upon whether the position of the wheel assembly 60 is desired to be outwardly extending allowing the stretcher frame to be brought nearer to the ground (as illustrated by the bottom wheels of the stretcher assemblyillustrated in FIG. 2) or downwardly extending to bear weight (as illustrated in FIG. 4).

It may be seen that in utilizing the stretcher of the invention, the body of a prone patient may be placed upon the stretcher, transported, for instance tohospital or the like then the patient may be placed on an examination table in precisely the same physical posture as that in which he was found. By releasing the transverse tension with handle 53 and pawls 52 and 54 the protrusions 43 can be disengaged from matching holes 42 and the carrying frame consisting of parts 40,41,44 and 45 can be removed and sheet 1 can remain beneath the patients body to be reclaimed later.

Although the invention has been illustrated and described with a certain degree of particularity, it is un derstood that the present disclosure has been made only by way of example and the numerous changes in the details of construction andthe combination and arrangement of parts may be resorted to without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as hereinafter claimed. v

What is claimed is:

1. A stretcher consisting of three discreet sections the first section being a pallet or sheet of suitable strong and flexible material having many button holes along each of the two longer sides,

a second section being a device having a multitude of rollers rotatably mounted on a flexible base plate onto which said first section can be wound to make a thin elongated roll, the resulting assembly of first and second sections being highly flexible, and when drawn alongbelow a prone body resting on a supporting surface unrolls said pallet leaving it between said prone body and said supporting surface,

a third section being a frame of approximately rectangular proportions with many protrusions spaced along both longer sides, said protrusions being so spaced as to be engageable by said button holes in said pallet so that said frame is usable to transport said pallet with said prone body thereon,

and means for tensionning said first, section, said tensionning means including a hand lever and two pawls in which the first acts as a non-return device and the second acts as an engageable drive link controllable from said hand lever, the two pawls co-operable to rotate said rotatable side of frame to apply and hold lateral tension through said protrusions and said button holes to said pallet.

2. A stretcher consisting of three discreet sections the first section being a pallet or sheet of suitable strong and flexible material having many button holes along each of the longer sides,

a second section being a device having a multitude of rollers rotatably mounted on a flexible base plate onto which said first section can be wound to make a thin elongated roll, the resulting assembly of first and second sections being highly flexible, and when drawn along below a prone body resting on a supporting surface unrolls said pallet leaving it between said prone body and said supporting surface,

a third section being a frame of approximately rectangular propo'rtions with many protrusions along both longer sides said protrusions being so spaced as to be engageable by said button holes in said pallet so that said frame is usable to transport said pallet with said prone body thereon said frame having on each corner thereof a support wheel assembly which can be swung .away from the vertical ,sup-

porting position in such a manner as to allow said frame to be lower toward supporting surface, a plurality of slots and a pawl to engage the slots, locking each support assembly in or out of support position.

unencumberred' by said rectangular frame. 

1. A stretcher consisting of three discreet sections the first section being a pallet or sheet of suitable strong and flexible material having many button holes along each of the two longer sides, a second section being a device having a multitude of rollers rotatably mounted on a flexible base plate onto which said first section can be wound to make a thin elongated roll, the resulting assembly of first and second sections being highly flexible, and when drawn along below a prone body resting on a supporting surface unrolls said pallet leaving it between said prone body and said supporting surface, a third section being a frame of approximately rectangular proportions with many protrusions spaced along both longer sides, said protrusions being so spaced as to be engageable by said button holes in said pallet so that said frame is usable to transport said pallet with said prone body thereon, and means for tensionning said first section, said tensionning means including a hand lever and two pawls in which the first acts as a non-return device and the second acts as an engageable drive link controllable from said hand lever, the two pawls co-operable to rotate said rotatable side of frame to apply and hold lateral tension through said protrusions and said button holes to said pallet.
 2. A stretcher consisting of three discreet sections the first section being a pallet or sheet of suitable strong and flexible material having many button holes along each of the longer sides, a second section being a device having a multitude of rollers rotatably mounted on a flexible base plate onto which said first section can be wound to make a thin elongated roll, the resulting assembly of first and second sections being highly flexible, and when drawn along below a prone body resting on a supporting surface unrolls said pallet leaving it between said prone body and said supporting surface, a third section being a frame of approximately rectangular proportions with many protrusions along both longer sides said protrusions being so spaced as to be engageable by said button holes in said pallet so that said frame is usable to transport said pallet with said prone body thereon said frame having on each corner thereof a support wheel assembly which can be swung away from the vertical supporting position in such a manner as to allow said frame to be lower toward supporting surface, a plurality of slots and a pawl to engage the slots, locking each support assembly in or out of support position.
 3. A stretcher according to claim 1 in which the transverse tension can be released gradually by said lever and pawls from said pallet and said frame can be disassociated from said pallet by unlinking said button holes from said protrusions with said prone body remaining on said pallet, supported on a suitable surface, unencumberred by said rectangular frame. 